High-speed in-situ pulsed thermometry in oxide RRAMs

Abstract

We present an in-situ temperature characterization technique applicable to forming as well as switching in oxide RRAM. This work provides unambiguous evidence that the switching event in these oxide systems includes a thermal event involving temperature excursions of hundreds of °C within a 10 nm filament. The applicability of this technique to as-fabricated devices makes it distinct from previous extraction methodologies that make use of specialized test structures that may have very different thermal environment compared to functional memory blocks. One of the key contributions of this technique is the scalability of this technique with changing size of the conducting filament.